


I think we have a problem and it wears heels

by niiizu



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Lesbian AU, Neighbors AU, Slow Build, Tumblr Prompts, aquaria is socially awkward, i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-06-01 04:17:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 17,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15134918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niiizu/pseuds/niiizu
Summary: Brianna lived in the same building her whole life and Aquaria moved in. Brianna hated her, but she endend up in Aquaria's apartment when she was drunk. Or: more tumblr prompts merged into a longfic.





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This was, again, inspired by prompts from the craquariaprompts tumblr page. These are the prompts I was inspired by:
> 
> "Miz cracker and Aquaria are neighbors. And they can’t stand one another.  
> It’s the holiday season and Aquaria happens upon Miz cracker playing in the snow, making snow angels and building a snowman, being ridiculously cute. But Aquaria won’t admit that."  
> "Miz cracker is drunk and stumbles into the wrong apartment: Aquaria’s.  
> Shenanigans ensue with an “annoyed” Aquaria and an inebriated Miz cracker. They both have a secret crush on the other".  
> " A drunk Miz cracker breaks into Aquaria’s place because she thinks it’s her place. But Aquaria isn’t upset."  
> "For whatever reason, an intoxicated Aquaria tries to fight Miz cracker. Needless to say, Aquaria hurts herself and Miz cracker takes care of her."
> 
> I'm not actually familiar with lesbian relationships/interactions and english isn't my first language, so any advice on those matters will be really helpful. And any comments in general. You guys always make me happier when you comment.
> 
> Hope you like it!

Brianna was always eager to tell people that she, unlike every other neighbor of hers, didn’t come to live in New York because she wanted to run away from anything. Actually, her parents ran away from her when they moved to Vermont. They spent her whole childhood and teenager years living in that same small, old apartment on the third floor of a random building in Harlem, and when she finally got a well-paying, secure job; they retired and moved away from her. She decided to stay, of course. She could finally afford to live by herself and she wouldn’t leave neither her friends nor her job for who knows what.

She loved her home, really: she had redecorated it to look like a bigger version of her room, which included a pair of shoes in every corner and her friends hanging around whenever she was home and, in case Monét’s shower broke again, when she wasn’t home either. Monét lived right across the hall, and most of the other neighbors were old acquaintances of Brianna too: the younger and the older ones. They were used to seeing her house always full of people and laughter until late on weekends, and absolutely everyone was fine with it.

That is, except for the new girl.

A strange girl, that was. She lived on the fourth floor, right above Brianna, and had moved a few months ago. Cracker (her friends called Brianna that sometimes) had tried to talk to her a few times in the beginning, but the girl mostly ignored her because she had earphones on all the time. She didn’t talk to anyone and had a resting bitch face whenever Brianna saw her. She knew her name started with an A and she had just moved from her parents’ house. She was a skinny, pale girl with long black hair and she was always wearing heels. 

“Don’t get me wrong”, Brianna said to whoever asked her about the girl “I’m 5 ft tall, I love my heels. But why the hell does she have to wear it all of the time, right above my head, all night long? Dropping stuff on the floor all of the time?”

Sometimes Brianna wondered if it was on purpose. She knew the girl didn’t like the parties. Asia, her kind and older friend, had the talent of making people open up to her and Vixen, her younger sister, told Brianna the new girl was pissed after the first party she had thrown after the new girl moved. They lived on the same floor, so they met more often.

The girl kept on walking on heels above her head all night long, so Brianna increased the amount of parties she threw. They never talked and always ignored each other on the public areas of the building, and Brianna knew it was a matter of time before that apartment was empty again. No one ever lived there for too long. Then she moved on with her life.

That is, until a certain night when she opened her apartment’s door and the girl was there. 

\--

Aquaria hated most of people, including her neighbors. She loved her mom, but they never lived well together; so when she could pay a place for herself, she moved away from Greenville as soon as she could. The problem was: her mom and her friends were all of the social life she ever had since the end of high school. She didn’t even make friendships in college that survived more than a semester. Moreover, she didn’t want to. She had a happy, lonely life with her afternoon runs, her work that made her stay awake most of the night, her Instagram account and her clothes and shoes, and she was perfectly fine. 

The only thing that really bothered her was her neighbor. She was a small woman that had a thousand friends and gathered them all in her apartment on every weekend, playing loud music. Aquaria hated her, but apparently, she was the only one. Even the nice girl across the hall liked her, and said her parties were fun. According to Aquaria’s experience, no party was fun. Young and old, every party had too much or too little alcohol, too loud or too boring music. She just liked being by herself and being able to listen to her own thoughts.

However, sometimes, life could be very boring. Aquaria felt it mostly on the holidays, when she wished she had friends to exchange presents and drink eggnog watching cheesy movies. She also wished she had friends to spend the New Year’s Eve. She was going home again, and it was going to be so boring she was planning on coming back home before the dawn of January 1st. 

She was going to the grocery store when she felt very lonely for the first time that year. She was planning her holidays talking to her mom on her cellphone while walking, but a happy laugh drew her attention.

She knew instantly whose it was, even though she had never heard her talk. The small girl, her annoying neighbor, was playing with snow in the square with her friends. She was a grown ass woman, wearing pink from head to toe, making snow angels and being hit by her friends’ snowballs. Her hat and scarf covered her face, but not enough to hide her impossibly pink nose and cheeks. She ran until she had cover, threw a snowball at one of her friends, whoever was closer; and laughed when she complained.

A buzz on Aquaria’s phone took her from the scene and she realized what she was doing. Before anyone could spot her, she walked away as fast as she could.

Aquaria spent the following days thinking about the girl. She found out her name when she heard a girl in the hallways call her loudly and searched the whole Facebook for a Brianna until she could find her. She looked at her tagged photos: they were always full of people with huge smiles and taken with flash that made everybody’s eyes brightly white or red. Aquaria barely had tagged photos, she thought sadly. She barely used her Facebook account too; she spent most of her time on Instagram. 

She got a message: her mom was coming to pick her up so she could help her cook the Christmas meals. Aquaria should have her things packed and be ready in an hour. She ran around the house, picking clothes from the laundry and packing her make up. How stupid of her, she thought. She didn’t need any friends. She lived all by herself for a good couple of years and she would be fine like that. No blushing blonde girl with tons of friends would make her change her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess one prompt is already filled? Let's see how it turns out from now on :D  
> (as if you couldn't guess from the prompts I used)
> 
> About the places: it was partly inspired by Miz Cracker talking about her childhood on the show and partly by going on Google Maps and calculating distances. I don't really know anything about these places, I'm brazilian. I also don't understand a lot about what you guys do on the holidays, except for all of the things I catch from TV shows and stuff. If anything is wrong or doesn't make sense, please forgive and tell me!
> 
> Most of this is already written, I just have to come up with a few details and write a couple of scenes. I'd like to say it's slow build, but I'm not so sure compared to the fics I've read from other fandoms. Anyway, I'm sure you'll be able to help me with this as I post new chapters.


	2. Chapter 2

New Year’s Eve was insane as usual for Brianna, being friends with Vanessa, the crazy girl from the first floor. They went to a bar and she kissed a bottle of champagne at midnight, thank you very much. She took the opportunity to kiss another one and a few other different drinks before the night was over and came home barely managing to walk on her ridiculously high heels up the stairs. Monét was sleeping in her boyfriend’s apartment, the bitch. 

Brianna just wanted to lay on her bed and pass out, but her goddamn key wasn’t working. She put it in the lock, but it wouldn’t turn. She tried a few times before she would open the door and find no one but Aquafina (whatever her name was, Vixen had given her that nickname a few weeks ago), her arrogant neighbor, right in front of her.

“Can I help you?” Aquaria asked in an annoyed tone.

“What the fuck are you doing in my home?” Brianna asked her, rolling the words in her tongue in a drunk pace.

“Excuse me? This is my home,” the taller girl answered. Brianna and her heels were almost taller than she was, though.

“Are you crazy? You live on the fourth floor!” Brianna raised her tone. Aquaria backed away, intimidated by the loud voice tone at 5 am. The small girl took a step closer and stumbled. Her foot turned in an awkward way and she fell as Aquaria made more space between them.

“Ow!” She shouted grabbing her ankle. It hurt, even with the drunken numbness she felt. Suddenly all of her feet hurt from wearing heels and she was as sober as she could be in a heartbeat. She would never have a white rug.  
She looked around. She wasn’t home. “Shit! I’m sorry! OW!” She tried to stand up, but her foot hurt too much. “I didn’t know I wasn’t home, I’m sorry,” She said trying to stand up while holding her ankle. Tears formed on the corner of her eyes from embarrassment and hurt.

Aquaria knew she was the victim there, but she couldn’t help feeling sorry for Brianna. She couldn’t even laugh at her humiliation, she thought sadly. She grabbed the smaller girl’s shoulders and helped her walk to her sofa.  
Brianna sighed deeply when she sat. She took off her shoes and tried to see her ankle and not flash Aquafina (fuck, what was her name?) her panties at the same time.

“Let me see if I have an ointment for that” Aquaria stated, trying to have a moment by herself at any cost. Shit, Brianna thought. The girl was being helpful even though she had just woken her up. She propped her head on a cushion and was lost in sleep before she could notice it.

When Aquaria came back, Brianna was sleeping. She groaned. Why did she have to start the year with a drunk girl on her sofa? That girl, from all of the other ones in the world?

Aquaria tried to wake her up, but the only sign she was alive was the heavy breathing that came from her nose. Eventually the taller girl gave up. She arranged Brianna’s shoes in a corner (she was a bit of an organization freak), took a blanket and covered the girl, walking back to her own room.

Aquaria couldn’t sleep much after that, though. 

\--

Poor Cracker’s dreams were filled with crazy happenings, strange people and disconnected sentences until everything became bright and she smelled coffee. When she opened her eyes, she surely wasn’t home. Her panties were killing her, her ankle and feet hurt like hell, she had a blanket, which she was allergic to, over her and she was on a couch. She never slept on her couch. It wasn’t her couch.

A digital clock on the wall read 3 pm and she sat up quickly. She tried to stand up and fix her skirt, which was crumpled up to her waist, but felt the worst possible pain on her ankle. She barely managed to stand up for a few seconds propped up on her other feet (which also hurt like hell) to fix her skirt before she gave up and sat again.

At the same time, Aquafina (damn it! She remembered everything) appeared on a doorstep with a mug, wearing pajamas.

“Is this really your house?” Brianna asked just because she wanted to make sure the girl wouldn’t say anything stupid, meaning that Cracker was surely still asleep.

“Yes.” She said, offering the mug “Coffee.”

“Wow… Thanks” Brianna answered, shocked. She took a large gulp and regretted it. She hated coffee with sugar.

“Is it bad?” the girl asked, surprised. Brianna herself was also surprised that she would make a face at something given to her at such a humiliating situation.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it. I don’t drink coffee with sugar.” She groaned and Aquafina made a surprised and offended face. Normally she wouldn’t care about the latter, but she was aware of how much the girl has helped her. “But I’ll drink it, thanks!” She concluded and drank again, as much as she could, and made her biggest effort possible not to make a face, failing terribly. She finally finished it.

“You didn’t have to do it, you know.” The girl commented, taking the mug.

“Thank you. For the coffee and for the sofa, and the blanket… and sorry for waking you up and yelling at you. I’ve never felt so humiliated in my life” and never had this big of a headache, for that matter, she thought to herself.  
“It’s okay,” She stated emotionless. It probably wasn’t okay.

Brianna tried to stand up again and her feet hurt like hell. She grabbed the couch, but she couldn’t put any of her feet on the floor properly, especially the one that had hurt more earlier. Aquafina tried to put her arm around her torso to help her, but she had absolutely no strength to hold her up and was trying so much to touch her as little as possible, Brianna stood no chance of walking again.

“Shit, shit shit” She sat as she sat down again on a nearby chair. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I can’t get up”

“Maybe you broke your feet?” The owner of the house questioned and Brianna looked at her in surprise “When you tripped?”

Cracker thought for a few seconds and answered with a sighed “Probably”.

She thought about who could help her. Asia and Vixen were at their mom’s house on the country. Monét was at her boyfriend. She vaguely remembered Vanessa leaving the subway before her. The few old people who lived in the building wouldn’t be able to hold her. Dusty went to sleep at a friend's house too.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can walk downstairs all by myself,” she grieved.

“Not even if I helped you?” The girl asked. She looked worried, but Brianna couldn’t know if it was because of her own wellbeing or if she just wanted to get rid of the hungover mess that she was right now.

“I don’t think so” she answered sadly.

“Can’t any of your friends help?”

“They’re not home... and I don’t think the older couples could help me.”

“Right. Shit.” She agreed sitting down on a chair nearby.

“I’m gonna text my friend anyway.” She decided, grabbing her phone from her purse.

They waited. Aquaria stood up and came inside the apartment, coming back a few minutes later wearing different clothes.

“Nothing. I think she’s still sleeping, she doesn’t answer calls either,” Brianna lamented, getting more desperate by the minute.

“Alright.” She acknowledged, thinking for a second. “Are you hungry? Want a coffee? A shower?”

“A shower would be great,” Brianna admitted. “But I don’t have any clothes and you can’t help me walk”.

“I can go get them downstairs if you want. And I think I can carry you a few meters.” She affirmed walking to the front door.

“That’d be amazing, really. Thank you so much. You don’t have to be so nice to me.” She smiled nervously and grabbed the key in her bag.

“It’s okay” she muttered, holding the key. “Where can I find them?”

“In the wardrobe in the larger room. There are bras, panties, t-shirts and yoga pants in the drawers. Bring any one of them, please. And the makeup remover in the bathroom. And the soap in the shower. And my shampoo.” 

“Okay” She stated unlocking the door.

“Uhm…” Brianna hesitated and the girl looked back “I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name.”

“Oh. It’s Aquaria,” she thought for a second before adding: “And yours?”

“Brianna.” Aquaria nodded and rushed out of the door.

\--

Aquaria couldn’t remember the last time she went through somebody else’s clothes. Her mom’s closet didn’t count, she practically lived there all through high school. She couldn’t help but notice the mess of shoes on the floor and a lot of pictures of different people hanging on the walls along with some music posters and old fashioned paintings of still life. The bed was a mess, the covers were piled in a corner and there were all kinds of clothing on the mattress. The wardrobe itself was surprisingly organized. She had to unfold the clothes to make sure they were easy enough to put on in the condition Brianna was at the moment and noticed that the girl wore those panties that had more fabric on the butt area, probably because she had more— she wouldn’t think about that. No, there was no way she was going to notice her annoying neighbor’s butt from now on. No way. Especially because she had just learned Aquaria’s name, after a whole night sleeping on her couch.

She rushed out of the apartment before Brianna could think she was peeking around her home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanna thank everybody who left kudos and commented already. You motivated me so much! 
> 
> I guess another prompt is filled? Eventually the story will follow its own plot so it won't be too easy to guess what's going to happen next. Or maybe it will. You know, cheesy romance is predictable.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

The shower had been a blessing. Brianna felt a lot more relaxed, even taking it sitting on a plastic stool that she was afraid could break at any moment. She tried to dry the bathroom after getting dressed, but Aquaria heard the strange noises she was making trying to do it sitting on the toilet and said she didn’t need to dry anything. The taller girl helped Brianna out of the bathroom and sat her on her couch again. 

“I’m sorry I made such a mess in your bathroom.” Brianna apologized while sitting.

“It’s okay. It looks worse when I wash my hair” Brianna chuckled. “There’s an ointment here for sore muscles and these are the pain killers I have,” Aquaria pointed at some medicines on a table in the corner.

Brianna thanked her and took the medicines, taking a while massaging her feet and ankle. It hurt a lot. Aquaria made them sandwiches and opened Netflix on the TV, asking Brianna to choose something and guaranteeing that she’d be fine with anything. Brianna ended up choosing the Property Brothers and they watched a few episodes, criticizing the owners’ choices and bad taste.

“If you can’t pay for the open concept, use your old bed! There’s nothing wrong with it!” Aquaria commented annoyed.

“Honestly, my furniture doesn’t match and I’ve breathed without any equipment for a good amount of years” Brianna stated ironically.

“Mismatching furniture looks great compared to that red wallpaper.” 

“Totally.”

Brianna felt more relaxed. She had her feet up, she didn’t have a headache anymore because of the pain killers and Aquaria was sitting on the other end of the couch, but she always listened to Brianna’s comments and sometimes started the conversations too, even if she stuttered a bit when doing that. The girl was also hugging a pillow protectively and biting her long nails. Cracker noticed it and didn’t know what made the girl so defensive and nervous. Maybe it was something she was saying? But Aquaria even laughed at her jokes sometimes…

She was thinking about it while the house owners decided to change the baby’s room wallpaper again and her phone buzzed. It was Monét.

Brianna (3:30 pm): r u still at Brandon’s? I need help  
Brianna (3:35 pm): it’s an emergency u bitch.  
Brianna (3:45 pm): omg I’m never letting u use my shower again.  
Monét (6:15 pm): what happened???  
Monét (6:15 pm): sorry we passed out I just woke up  
Monét (6:16 pm): please don’t ever leave me and my shower   
Brianna (6:18 pm): r u home? I think I broke my ankle  
Brianna (6:18 pm): I need a ride to the doctor  
Brianna (6:19 pm): and I need u to help me down the stairs  
Monét (6:22 pm): shit r u ok?  
Monét (6:22 pm): I’m leaving right now then  
Monét (6:23 pm): can’t u go down the stairs sitting?

Brianna looked up to the TV and thought. She didn’t think about it before.

“Uhm…” She hesitated, calling Aquaria’s attention “do you think I could go downstairs sitting?”

“On the steps?” Brianna nodded. “… I guess so…”

“Why didn’t I think about it before?” She slapped her own forehead lightly. The noise surprised Aquaria either way. “I wouldn’t need to bother you so much!”

“You’re not bothering me.” She stated calmly. “Do you wanna go now? Need help? Y-you don’t need to go now if you don’t want too.” She mumbled. She was worried Brianna would think she was kicking her out.

“No, it’s okay, I need to go anyway. I think I’ll need some help, yes.”

Aquaria helped her walk to the stairs and sit down. She took Brianna’s things and put them in a plastic bag rushing to come back to the hallway and help her, even though Brianna was doing fine on her own.

When they reached the last couple of steps, Monét appeared at the other end of the hallway.

“Girl, I almost thought you were joking. How bad is it?” She questioned. She was wearing the same outfit from last night and holding her shoes.

“I can’t even put my foot on the floor. It’s better now that my feet are rested from the heels I wore last night, but it still hurts. By the way, this is Aquaria. Aquaria, this is Monét. She lives there.” Brianna pointed to Monét’s door across the hall from her own and reached for Monét to grab her arm and lift her. Monét was strong and she looked like it, but Aquaria tried to help too anyway.

Monét smiled nervously to Aquaria. She remembered a day when the girl was walking on heels as usual and she was using Brianna’s shower while her friend was at her job. She was so pissed at the constant click clacking, she took a broom and hit Brianna’s roof a few times. Aquaria stopped instantly and she never knew if it was because of herself or any other reason. 

Aquaria gave her the same smile out of shyness. They helped Brianna stand up and went into her apartment. Monét started running around getting shoes for Brianna and her everyday purse. Aquaria stood up nervously by Brianna’s side, who was sitting on an armchair. 

“Sit down”, Brianna offered, pointing to the couch.

“Uhm, I was thinking… do you think you guys will need my help to go to the doctor?”

“I don’t think so; Monét can carry me on her back if she wants to. Do you need to go home?”

“Uhm… no, but… well, if you don’t need me…” she mumbled nervously.

“It’s okay, Aquaria. Thank you very much. I don’t even know how to make it up for you.” Brianna said smiling. Normally she would be her usual always-touching-other-people self and hold Aquaria’s hand in gratitude, but the girl looked so nervous she didn’t want to invade her personal space.

“You don’t need to, it’s okay.” She smiled too, relaxing a bit, but still looking nervous. She thought for a while and bit her lip before mumbling, “When you come back, if you can walk, please tell me what happened in the doctor.”

“Of course I will.” Brianna’s smile became softer. “Hey, give me your number so I can give you news even if I’m stuck here.”

“Sure!” Aquaria exclaimed, a little bit too excited for her own liking. Brianna took note of her number before she rushed nervously out of the door. While they were talking, Monét went home for a quick shower and she opened her door to see Aquaria running up the stairs, the skinny excited thing.

“Guess we don’t have to worry about her anymore,” She questioned opening Brianna’s door.

“Hopefully not,” Brianna stated.

“Are you gonna tell me why the hell she was here or what?”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Monét shaked her head in denial “Girl, sit down. It’s a long story.”

“You can tell me at the doctor’s waiting room. Let’s go.” She promised grabbing Brianna as if it was nothing.

\--

Later that night, Aquaria received a text.

Brianna (11:45 pm): hey, sorry if I woke you up. I just came home and I actually broke my ankle :/ gonna wear a plaster for a month.  
She fidgeted with her phone a little bit before deciding to open the conversation and answer. She was always worried people would think she spent her whole day on her phone, which was only partially true.  
Aquaria (11:50 pm): hi  
Aquaria (11:51 pm): shit I’m sorry for you  
Aquaria (11:52pm): it’s okay, I wasn’t sleeping  
Brianna (11:55 pm): guess I gotta pay for trying to open other people’s doors when I’m drunk hahaha

Aquaria didn’t mind it as much as she did in the morning. She was so angry at Brianna for waking her up, but now that they talked and she saw in how much pain the girl was, she couldn’t bring herself to be as angry as she thought she should be.

Aquaria (11:57pm): it’s okay, really  
Aquaria (11:58pm): I swear I didn’t curse you haha  
Brianna (11:59 pm): lol I didn’t think so 

They talked a little bit more about Brianna’s trip to the doctor before they went to sleep. It was the first personal conversation Aquaria had in her phone that didn’t involve her mom. She spent a few minutes thinking about it looking at Brianna’s photo and couldn’t help but feel proud of herself. She knew if she developed a friendship with Brianna, it wouldn’t last long, as usual. They would soon be busy with work, family or other people. Nevertheless, she would enjoy every moment of it for that same reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Please don't forget to leave comments :)


	4. Chapter 4

Aquaria waited a few days before she texted Brianna to see if she was home. She was initially going to wait for only a day, but she became overwhelmed with work for a few days and spent a couple more relaxing taking pictures and coming up with new outfits, until she admitted to herself that she was procrastinating social situations again. She rushed to the grocery store when she decided she wouldn’t postpone it anymore and bought a cake. Then she texted Brianna and went down the stairs.

“It’s open!” Brianna shouted from inside when she heard Aquaria’s soft knock.

“Hey… how are you?” Aquaria asked walking to her with a plastic bag. Why did she wear heels all day long but came to Brianna’s house in sneakers?

“Bored as hell. It’s the third time I watch the same Harry Potter movie this week.” She lamented pointing to the TV. It was indeed playing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

“Sorry I didn’t visit you earlier, I was caught up with work. But I brought cake!” Aquaria smiled, lifting the plastic bag.

“Yaay!” she threw her hands up and laughed. Then she grabbed a pair of crutches on the floor, standing up.

“Do you need any help?” Aquaria questioned as she walked up to her, putting the bag on the small table Brianna had in her living room.

“No, I’m just gonna make something for us to drink. I need to stretch a little anyway. You like coffee, right? Or would you prefer tea?” she asked as she jumped slowly to the kitchen. Her plaster was full of silly drawings and signatures. Aquaria looked around the floor if there was something that could make the short girl trip or fall, but there wasn’t a single shoe in the whole room except for Brianna’s single flip flop, currently under her good foot.

“Either one is fine for me” she shrugged.

“Which one do you think matches the cake best?” Brianna asked supporting the crutches on a nearby wall and opening the cabinet door to many small boxes of tea.

“Well, it’s a sweet cake. Maybe a fruit flavor?”

“Apple and cinnamon?” Aquaria nodded “Sounds good!”

They chatted while the water boiled and all the time while eating. Brianna learned that Aquaria worked at home and loved fashion, and Aquaria learned that Brianna lived there all of her life and loved New York, Gorillaz and chocolate cake, fortunately. They were talking about Harry Potter sitting on the couch and watching The Order of the Phoenix when there was a quick knock on the door and the person opened it without waiting for permission. It was a skinny black girl with a small fro who also lived on the fourth floor.

“Hey, Cracker. Asia wants… Ah, hey.” She started saying and stopped when she noticed Aquaria.

“Hey, Vix. This is Aquaria.”

“Yeah, Asia told me about you. She’s my sister.”

Aquaria remembered vaguely the nice girl that talked to her a few times and noticed she kind of looked like this girl. They had seen each other before, but none of the girls cared enough to pay attention to each other. Aquaria loved people that could ignore her easily. “Ah, yes”, she settled simply.

“Anyway,” Vixen turned her attention to Brianna “Asia made dinner and she wants to know if you want some.”

“Thanks, but Mrs. Spencer gave me this huge plastic container full of food and I didn’t eat all of it yet. And I just ate with Aquaria. Want some cake?” She pointed to the table.

“No, thanks. I just ate. OK, if you change your mind text us. Bye!” She walked away and closed the door too quickly to be answered. Brianna tried to talk to her, but she was long gone. 

“Don’t mind her, she’s always like this.” 

“I can relate” Aquaria confessed thinking about how she avoided the rest of her family much like this girl did to herself.

“Well, then you guys would get together well.”

“Probably.”

She waited for the movie to be over and went back home. 

They talked a lot during the following days, during Brianna’s days off work because of her leg. Brianna would find a nice movie on her TV and ask if Aquaria liked it, and she would come downstairs if she had the time to watch it. They actually spent more time talking about other subjects than watching TV, but it was fine for both of them. 

\--

Brianna noticed Aquaria was becoming more comfortable around herself. The taller girl was always willing to help with the dishes and move things around, but Brianna never accepted too much help. She would happily jump around the apartment with her crutches all day long. Aquaria began to come to her home wearing the same heels she wore upstairs every day and Brianna was starting to get used to the sound. When she thought Aquaria felt comfortable enough in her apartment, she invited her to Monét’s to have dinner and meet her group of friends.

Aquaria accepted without thinking too much, but she almost came up with an excuse to stay at home when the day came. She went only because Brianna said she was excited to introduce her to her friends and she liked Brianna enough to give it a try. 

There were too many people at the apartment and Aquaria realized it as soon as Monét opened the door for her and said hi.

“Aqua!” Brianna shouted from the couch happily, calling her attention. Aquaria smiled shyly at everyone and walked towards Brianna. She was the first person in years to give her a nickname that wasn’t embarrassing like the ones her mom gave her, and she was thankful for that. Brianna pulled her in for a hug (that was an accomplishment, too. When she did it for the first time out of habit, she was afraid Aquaria didn’t like it, but she reciprocated and eventually grew used to them) and introduced her to the people around, mostly girls.

At the beginning of the night, Brianna made sure Aquaria always had a spot by her side. She managed to talk to a few girls, especially Asia and Blair. She noticed Aquaria’s stutter and how she moved her hands nervously while talking, but she did talk to people nevertheless.

Aquaria didn’t know if Brianna noticed how nervous she was around other people. She tried to remain calm, but she felt better as the night passed on.

“When are you going to take the plaster off, Cracker?” Dusty, who lived on the second floor, questioned her.

“Probably next week”.

“When will you let me sign it?” Monét asked.

“You write on it every single day.” Brianna stated. It was true. There were new drawings on it every day. They were mainly hearts and strange drawings Aquaria couldn’t tell what represented, but there were a few signatures too.

“Did everybody sign it?” the girls that were around nodded, except for Monét who shook her head. Aquaria didn’t react. “Did you sign it, Aqua?”

“I don’t think so… I don’t remember.” She hesitated, trying to make it sound like she didn’t mind. She actually noticed Brianna’s plaster drawings a lot and would love to write something on it, although she had no idea what to make and was afraid to ask for a try.

“Somebody get this girl a pen!” Monét shouted while she stood up and got a pen herself. She soon found one and gave it to Aquaria.

“But what do I write?” She guessed nervously. Most eyes were on her.

“Write your name” Brianna said at the same time Monét shouted, “Draw a sponge!”

“What?” Aquaria turned to Monét. The girl pointed to a doodle on the plaster “A sponge!”

“That’s a sponge? I thought it was a brick!”

Everybody burst into laughter.

“I told you it looked like cheese!” Asia screamed.

“Girl, it’s yellow and green! A yellow brick?” Monét questioned laughing too.

“Well, there’s a pink cloud here” Aquaria pointed to another drawing.

“It’s another sponge!” Monét shouted and the laughter became even bigger. Aquaria managed to relax enough to join them. 

“Now I want this bitch to draw something!” Monét stated. She was joking, but she meant it.

“What? No, I can’t draw!” Aquaria hesitated.

“I don’t need any more sponges on this plaster, Monét, thanks. Aqua, do whatever you want.” Brianna said, being the voice of reason.

Aquaria wrote her name and made a small and simple fish next to it. She also put a heart on the “i”.

“Awn, she’s so delicate,” Vanessa commented. Her voice was so deep it was a bit funny. Aquaria took her time getting used to it.

When Brianna invited her for dinner, Aquaria thought Monét was going to cook something. She actually just wrote the pizza flavors everybody wanted, called the pizzeria and announced everybody was free to get drinks from her   
fridge. It was completely packed with beer, wine and coke. She had a coke initially, but had some glasses of wine later, once she felt comfortable enough to drink. Monét included her in a conversation she was having with Vixen by the oven when Aquaria went to fill her glass again.

“Do you remember that guy, I think he was Kameron’s boyfriend?” She asked, touching Aquaria’s arm and making her look, but directing her ask to Vixen. Monét was one of those people who liked to touch someone when she talked.

“Which one, the asshole?”

“Girl, most of them were assholes,” Vixen agreed to her “I’m talking about the one from that mimic game. I think it was at Asia’s birthday party, all of your cousins were here.”

“Ah, I remember him! The one with the ugly drawings, right?”

“Yeah! It was like,” she turned to Aquaria “Someone came up with the idea to play mimics to shut him up, it was probably Vixen ‘cause she does these things. He was such an asshole, he kept talking over people and no one cared   
about him. I think the word was book or something. I swear he was drawing a ladder. Like, it was obviously a ladder. You know, like the wooden ones?” Aquaria nodded “It was ridiculous! We laughed so hard at him when he made those drawings!”

“I mean, at one point I was just taking the opportunity to laugh at his face in front of him,” Vixen explained.

“I think everybody was. I had to hold myself to not point my finger at him, you know, like those judgmental kids at school?” she remembered, touching Aquaria again.

“You know what, we should play something!” Vixen shouted more excitedly than she was before.

“Yaas! Let’s play something! Hey GIRLS!” Monét turned around and came to the kitchen’s door, shouting so everyone could hear “Let’s play a game!”

Aquaria became a bit nervous. She didn't want to be the asshole with the ugliest drawings of the party.

“Which game?” Someone asked. 

“Musical chairs!” Monique screamed, getting excited too.

“Excellent idea!” Monét answered, completely forgetting about the mimics game she was talking about, already taking chairs and stools from every room of the house.

Aquaria walked to Brianna quickly and sat by her side at the couch. Monét took the stool she had her feet on too.

“Aren't you gonna play?” She asked her.

“I don't think so… they'll need someone to control the music right?” She guessed nervously.

“I think I’ll have to do that, you know. Unless they let me sit down while the music is playing.” Brianna answered and Aquaria looked at her plaster, suddenly remembering. “But you don't need to play if you don't want. I just think   
it's gonna be really funny and I’m regretting I won't be able to play it too.”

Aquaria looked at her and thought for a minute before drinking all of her glass at once.

“I’ll play it for you, then, Bri. Wish me luck.” 

Bri? That was new, Cracker thought.

“Good luck. Be careful with Monique, she's a little competitive.”

Brianna put on a pop song and the girls started to practically run around the chairs, tripping over each other and a few of them were completely oblivious to the mess, just dancing and singing along. Brianna let it play for a while and threatened to lower completely the volume a few times before actually doing it. Aquaria came quite far at the competition, losing when there were four people and three chairs. She stood by Brianna's side and Monique lost to Vixen at the end. They repeated the game a few times, until the pizzas came. 

“I don't know if I’m dizzy from the game or the wine”, Aquaria confessed to Brianna while she ate sitting on the armrest of the couch the injured girl was.

“Maybe both” she answered. Aquaria was a lot more relaxed after the game.

After they ate, everybody just chatted with each other again and Aquaria was more talkative. She didn't drink much more alcohol, but she was more sociable anyway. That wasn't new for her. She could never tell if she was talking too much when she was drunk, so she tried to keep herself in the middle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how Aquaria autographs things and if I were her I would totally draw a fish. Is musical chairs the name of that game? I just googled it.  
> I mean, what's the point of a party if there isn't a childish game to play, right? I love them.
> 
> Please don't forget to comment!


	5. Chapter 5

After Monét's party, Aquaria was more friendly with all of the girls that lived in the building. She avoided wearing headphones in the public areas of the building since she might meet one of the girls and she ended up being more friendly to all her other neighbors. She also created a friendship with Vixen.

Vixen was in her last year of college and spent her days studying and working a part time job in the nearby convenience store. Since Aquaria worked a lot during the night, she frequently came to the shop in the middle of the night and Vixen often took that shift.

“So, did you like the party at Monét's?” Vixen questioned her once, when she was at the cashier.

“Yes. A lot. You girls are really funny.” Aquaria answered a bit nervously. She liked the early mornings because she could be silent, so she wasn't prepared to meet Vixen and talk.

“Well, if you go out with us again, don't get used to seeing Cracker sitting all of the time. She can go crazy on those parties”

“Ah, don't worry, I’ve seen it before” she commented, remembering the New Year's morning.

“That's right, I forgot about that. But I think she'll tone it down a bit from now on that you're friends with her.”

“Why do you think that?” Aquaria asked curiously.

“Well, she threw those crazy parties 'cause she knew you didn't like the noise. I thought you knew,” she told her as if it meant nothing.

“I… didn't. Why would she do that? We didn't even know each other” she was surprised and a bit upset.

“Well, you walked on heels day and night right over her head, I think she had enough reason to be angry at you” Vixen said in a tone that stated the obvious.

“I didn't know she could hear them. She could have asked me to stop” Aquaria wasn't even looking at Vixen anymore, she was just recalling every moment she spent with Brianna on her head.

“Girl, how couldn't she? Those walls are paper thin” 

Aquaria gave her a quick goodbye and left, her head heavy with thoughts. It was too late to text Brianna and ask her about it, but she needed to talk to her somehow, so she sent her a text a few hours later. Brianna had already took the plaster off, so she should be getting ready to work.

Aquaria (8:00 am): hi, I need to talk with you about something, please tell me when you're free.  
Brianna (8:17 am): alright. Is it serious?   
Aquaria (8:35 am): not really. 

\--

Brianna thought Aquaria's last text was too strange and decided to knock on her door as soon as she came home at night. It had been a while since she went there, but it all looked the same, clean and neat. Aquaria was wearing a bathrobe over something she couldn't tell what was and was barefoot, although Brianna could hear her heels clacking when she was downstairs.

“Hi. I thought it would be better if I dropped in. Is it okay?” she asked with a friendly smile even though Aquaria didn't seem quite happy.

“Sure. Sit down. Do you wanna drink something?” she offered in a indifferent tone.

“No, thanks.” she sat on the sofa. Aquaria sat on the other end of it, keeping a distance she wasn't used to from her. They were silent for a while and Aquaria looked nervously at her nails. 

“Aquaria, what's going on?” Brianna inquired seriously.

“Well… I met Vixen yesterday and she-she told me you didn't like me at first because I wore heels all day long, and she said you threw noisy parties because of that, so I was… worried, I think.”

“Well… it's all true. What are you worried about?”

“When were you gonna tell me you didn't like the noise? Why didn't you say it before?” She inquired quickly, interrupting Brianna when she tried to answer the first question. Brianna took the opportunity to think about what she was going to say.

“I don't really mind it anymore, you know. I grew used to it. I thought you knew I could hear it. And I thought you didn't like me, since you didn't even look at me when we met before. I thought it was on purpose and I couldn't tell why.”

“I had no idea you could hear it. When I lived at home, my mom never complained about it and I never minded the noise. And I didn't talk to anyone, I was really shy.”

“I realize that now, you know. That you're shy.”

“And I’m sorry about it. I wouldn't do it on purpose if I knew.”

“It's okay, I’m sorry I reacted the way I did instead of talking to you.” Brianna relaxed, but Aquaria still looked tense.

“Is there anything else you'd like to say?” The blonde asked.

“Is that why you acted like that in the New Year?”

“Well, yeah. I already held a grudge against you and I thought you were in my home, how was I supposed to react?” She was silent for a while. “And I was so surprised when you were nice to me. I thought you really didn't like me.”

“I didn't like your parties when I was trying to work. I didn't know you enough yet to not like you. I was trying to find a way to tell you I didn't like the noise, you know, since we didn't know each other and I was going to complain to you at the first time we met.”

“Well, I guess it makes you a better person than me.” Brianna admitted while looking at the floor in a defensive position.

“Who cares who the better person was? We were both wrong in a way”. Aquaria seemed sad, as if she had just lost a friend with that conversation. Brianna didn't like it. She saw it as a step taken forward. She didn't have anything else she would like to tell Aquaria, and she felt great.

“I guess we were. Can we leave it all behind?” She asked smiling and straightened her posture, looking for Aquaria's eyes; which were fixed on the floor. Aquaria looked at her uncertainly. She knew that these stupid arguments could destroy the weak relationships she had with people, at least the ones she used to have in the past.

“Sure, I guess.”

Brianna approached her and hugged her. Aquaria hugged her back. She looked as calm as she could. She was fine with everything, really, but she could never tell what the people she interacted with thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This chapter was a bit short, but the next one will be longer. And I have good news: I just finished this fic! I think I'm gonna add an epilogue, but the main story is complete. Yay!
> 
> Please don't forget to comment!


	6. Chapter 6

The bell of the door to the convenience store rang and a Brianna saw a familiar face at the cashier. It was Vixen.

“Hey, girl!” She called and hugged her friend over the counter “isn’t your shift supposed to start later?”

“Yeah, but I’m covering for a friend. I’m staying here all the way until dawn today,” Vixen answered, happy to see a familiar face at last.

“Wow, good luck with that. It looks tiring.”

“The night shift is much less busy than the afternoon, so I’m gonna be fine. I just gotta have a few Red Bulls to keep myself awaken. I even get to watch Netflix!”

“Well, that sounds better then.” Brianna said and went to grab her dinner, which consisted of frozen food and sweets, just because she was too lazy to cook. 

“You know who usually comes here in the middle of the night? That friend of yours, Aquaria” Vixen commented while she was checking Brianna’s goods “She always buys that sugar free shit, but ends up getting a lemon tart right before I finish checking her stuff. She’s nice though.” 

“Yeah, Aquaria looks just like the person who would do that. She always tries not to eat much but ends up repeating her food.” Brianna chuckled as she remembered her friend who visited her almost every day when she had broken her ankle and brought her sweets and junk food, claiming that those were only for Brianna, but ended up eating half of the bag of chips with her.

“So when are you gonna start hitting on her?” Vixen inquired her with a sly smile when she noticed Brianna was lost in thought.

“What?” Brianna almost shouted in surprise. She was blushing too quickly for her own good. She could even feel her cheeks burn.

“Don’t try to fool me, Miss Cracker. I’ve noticed how you look at her at Monét’s, and the last time you looked at a girl that way you two dated for months” Vixen stated, laughing at Brianna. 

It had been so long since her last relationship she almost forgot how she was supposed to react to Vixen’s teasing.

“Well, it was different back then. I’m sure Aquaria doesn’t feel the same, so don’t go embarrassing me in front of her to prove anything, miss know-it-all” 

Brianna left before Vixen could laugh more at her. The little brat had always been perceptive; she could read Brianna even better than Monét.

 

\--

 

A few days had passed since the last day Aquaria and Brianna talked and the girl hadn’t left Brianna’s mind since then. She called her mom and asked for an old family recipe of a piecrust her mom always filled with strawberries when Brianna was a child and asked her if she knew how to make a lemon filling for it. Her mom had looked in her books and came up with a cream and a meringue. They sounded simple and delicious enough for Brianna to try by herself at home. She promised to make another one the next time she visited and stared at the sheet of paper for half an hour after they hung up.

Brianna loved to cook and she was good enough to make small mistakes only when she was nervous. She knew she could nail that recipe. However, she was thinking about what Vixen had asked her. If she invited Aquaria to come and help her as she had intended to before calling her mom, would it be because she was interested in the girl as a friend or in a deeper way? Aquaria wasn’t exactly hard to deal with, but she didn’t even seem eager to continue their friendship after she found out Brianna didn’t like her at first. Maybe she was afraid of Brianna lying to her again (would that be considered lying?) or not noticing again when she did something people didn’t like?   
Brianna was taking wild guesses at trying to read Aquaria’s feelings, but she wasn’t the kind of girl who dwelled on her decisions. Standing up suddenly, she took her phone from her purse and texted Aquaria before she could second-guess herself.

 

\--

 

Aquaria showed up at Brianna’s door as soon as the blonde girl texted her she was home. Brianna still had her work clothes on, so she asked the girl to wait a minute while she took a quick shower. She showered as fast as she could, but she couldn't resist wearing a bit of perfume. You know, just because. Aquaria sat at the living room reading the recipe and admired Brianna’s handwriting for longer than she would be able to admit.

“Do you want an apron? I have a small collection here,” Brianna asked opening a drawer in the kitchen when they were ready to start. It was full of fabrics with different patterns and colors.

“Are these all aprons?” Aquaria asked gasping.

“Well, not all of them, but the prettier ones are. I wish I had more, but we don’t have much space in these apartments. Go ahead, pick one.”

“Don’t even tell me. I can barely fit all of my clothes and shoes in my apartment.” She commented picking a red apron with ruffles and apple print. Brianna helped her tie it and tried not to stare a lot. It looked beautiful in contrast with Aquaria’s long, straight deep black hair, tied in a perfect ponytail. She herself wore a baby pink one that matched… well, all of the pink stuff she had in her kitchen, which were quite a lot.

The instructions were simple, but Aquaria didn’t know about cooking enough to be able to follow them without a little bit of help. Brianna had put all of the dough’s ingredients in a bowl and, instead of sitting at the table in the living room to mix them with her hands like she usually did, decided to stay at the kitchen and help Aquaria cook the lemon flavored cream with verbal instructions.

“Can I put them all in the pan and then turn on the fire? Or do I need to put them as I stir?” Aquaria guessed looking at all of the ingredients lined on the sink as if they could bite her.

“I think it’d be better if you put them all in the pan before starting to cook, ‘cause you can’t stop stirring once you start” Brianna answered, her wrists deep in flour and butter.

“Oh. That makes sense.” 

She measured everything precisely and used every drop of the condensed milk and milk cream cans carefully.

Brianna was precise when measuring the ingredients, but her experience told her when she needed more flour and when it was okay to stop mixing the dough. She let it rest for a while and washed the dishes while Aquaria was growing tired of stirring the cream carefully. They talked about how Brianna loved to cook but was never as good as her mom, and how Aquaria's mom loved to eat out while Aquaria wasn't so fond of it, but she grew used to it as her mom grew older and tired of cooking. Their fridge was full of magnets with takeout restaurants’ phone numbers. Eventually Aquaria became distracted from cooking and talking at the same time and let some of the mixture splash on the floor.

“Shit! I’m sorry!” She groaned uncertain if she should stop stirring to clean it and looking nervously from the pan to the floor.

“It's okay, I can clean it. Did you burn yourself?” Brianna inquired taking her wrist in her hand to check it. Aquaria blushed and held the spoon with the other hand, although she didn't remember to stir. She was focused on Brianna’s touch. Her hands were cold from washing the dishes in contrast with Aquaria's warm ones from cooking. 

They stared at each other silently for a few moments before Aquaria swallowed hard and tried to focus on the pan.

“I-i’m fine,” she mumbled taking the spoon with her right hand again. 

Brianna grabbed a paper towel and cleaned the floor quickly. “Are you tired? Do you want me to stir it?” she asked when she threw the paper away.

“But you still have to bake the dough and we have to make the meringue. I'll finish it,” she replied a bit nervously, but Aquaria was determined to help.

Brianna agreed and put the dough on the baking tray, creating a layer that covered all the inside of it.

After she put it in the oven, the cream was finally ready. Brianna took a small spoon and took a bit of the cream, giving it to Aquaria. It was a bit awkward, because the girl thought she wanted her to put her mouth directly on it, so Aquaria did it, closing her eyes.

“Uhm… this is delicious! It's so much better than the ones I buy! I can't believe I made it!” She beamed putting the spoon on the cream again. Before she did, though, Brianna stopped her, taking her hand.

“You have to wash it first, or it will go bad.”

“Ah. Okay.” Aquaria washed the spoon quickly and gave a bit of cream to Brianna, although she didn't have the courage to put it in her mouth.

“Uhm… It's really good! My mom always made it with strawberries, but the lemon matches it perfectly!”

“I never liked the strawberry ones, they're too sweet”.

“I think I'll have to make my mom's recipe for you someday then. Her food tastes like heaven.”

“I bet yours is just as good, you know so much about cooking.” 

“We'll see when the dough is ready. You never ate my food before, you can't go praising it.” Brianna stated and laughed. Aquaria agreed, but she still believed Brianna’s food should be delicious.

When the meringue’s ingredients were lined on the kitchen sink, Aquaria decided to leave it for Brianna. She didn't know it was made with egg whites and decided it must be too difficult for a newbie like her to try. She took the dough from the oven and put the cream on it. She was also amazed at the wonders a mixer could do, creating that beautiful white cream from almost nothing. Brianna laughed at her surprised expression while she finished mixing the meringue and put it on the pie, arranging it as best as she could.

It would still take a few minutes in the oven to darken the meringue and then it would be ready for a few hours in the fridge.

“I think it's gonna be ready to eat around midnight” Brianna commented, calculating the hours it would take the pie to cool down.

“Wow. Are you sure? Can't we eat it when the meringue is ready?”

“We could, but it'll taste much better when it's cold. We could have dinner and watch something while we wait.” She suggested. It was so nice spending time with Aquaria; she didn't want the girl to leave so soon. Especially after helping her. 

“I guess we could,” she answered. Aquaria was thankful Brianna wanted her to stay. She really thought her neighbor would never want to hang out with her again. Other people wouldn't, she thought to herself, trying to push these thoughts back into her mind and focus on the present. Besides, it was a Friday night and she had absolutely nothing to do.

Brianna started looking in her fridge for something they could eat when they heard a knock on the front door.

“Cracker? Are you there?” Vixen's voice questioned and the girl appeared on the kitchen's doorframe “Hey girls!” She smiled slyly.

“Hi Vixen!” Aquaria said innocently. Brianna blushed slightly.

“Asia made dinner but she forgot to cook the rice and asked me to come see if you have some and invite you to eat at home. You can come too, Aquaria.”

“I’ve got rice and some puree here,” Brianna answered showing two plastic containers.

“Sounds good. Are you girls coming?”

Brianna looked at Aquaria. “Sure, let's go”, the taller girl answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I took so long to post this! I waited a few days to see if somebody would comment on the last chapter and completely forgot to post a new one!
> 
> This chapter is very dear to me. The lemon tart is a traditional recipe in my family and most people love it. I don't know how (or if?) it's made out of Brazil, but here we use tons of eggs and sugar, as always when we make sweets. I also took some time thinking how I would portray Vixen here, so any comments on what you think about her are welcome.
> 
> I'm thinking about posting a new chapter tomorrow, but please don't forget to comment, even if you didn't like the chapter! It's really important to me. Also, what do you think about the length of the chapters?
> 
> As always, thank you for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

Having dinner with Aquaria at Asia’s with Vixen observing them closely and Monét making stupid jokes made Brianna feel like she was bringing a girlfriend to meet her parents for the first time. The food was delicious as always and Asia was a sweetheart to Aquaria. Monét lightened the mood, since Vixen made no effort to stop smiling maliciously. They had the TV on with a low volume while the girls talked about their day and explained to Aquaria who they were talking about (“Raja’s this really tall bitch who thinks she owns the hospital just because she's a hundred years old, but she's only in charge of the infirmary”). 

“Guess we're finally getting old” Asia stated when they finished eating, sighing.

“Why?” Vixen asked her.

“We wouldn't be here having dinner on a Friday night a few years ago. We’d be at a cheap club, me trying to stop you from passing out drunk (she pointed at Vixen), you trying to make your parents let you sleep at your girlfriends’ house (she pointed at Brianna), and you… no, you didn't change.” She confessed looking at Monét at last, who burst into laughter “We're finally getting old and tired, girls.”

“Well, you know, we could still go out tonight. It's not even midnight yet. We're just having dinner too late.” Monét acknowledged.

“Yeah, but… it doesn't feel the same, you know? Everything has changed.” 

“You're just saying it 'cause your birthday’s coming. Can't take being on the verge of the 30th” Vixen sing sang.

Asia looked at her angrily. Brianna tried to look at the positive side of it; she wasn't feeling like going out that night. She just wanted to share a lemon pie with her crush, I mean, with her new friend and her best friends.

“But changes can be good too! I mean, we’re finally having proper meals all week long and no one's on the verge of having an addiction on cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana or red bull. And everybody's paying their rent in time.” 

None of the girls seemed too excited about it. “And I have a lemon pie me and Aquaria made in my fridge if you girls want some” she said less excitedly, but Asia finally smiled and Aquaria laughed from her reaction. 

“Feels good to be old, right, Asia?” Monét mocked her friend.

 

\--

 

“Hey girl! No lemon pies today?” Vixen asked as Aquaria came to the cashier of the convenience store to pay for her stuff. It was almost 1 am. 

“No, I still have Brianna’s pie at home. I’m eating it slowly so it won’t end,” she answered. Vixen laughed.

“Talking about endings” she started, changing subjects “my cousin’s futsal school team’s gonna play the finals at a rich kids’ school and he asked the family to bring as many people as we could, ‘cause their field is huge and they wanna have lots of people cheering for them. You wanna come?”

“But I don’t know anything about sports” Aquaria answered shyly. What kind of invitation was that?

“You don’t need to. Just cheer when we do and it’ll be fine. Or don’t cheer, whatever. All the girls are coming. Brianna too.” She stated and observed Aquaria’s reaction. She looked inclined to let it pass until Brianna’s name was mentioned. Then she started to consider it.

“Look, it’s this Saturday afternoon. You can think about it, don’t worry. Here’s your invoice. Now go eat your precious homemade pie.”

Vixen wasn’t stupid and she had plans, so she asked Brianna to invite Aquaria again when the day of the match came. She wanted Cracker to go to the girl’s apartment, but Brianna saw no sense in that and decided to send her a text. Aquaria agreed anyway.

Brianna (10:15 am): Vix asked us to wear black and white  
Brianna (10:15 am): they’re the school colors  
Brianna (10:16 am): but don’t listen to her all the time  
Brianna (10:17 am): also don’t trust her, she’s always planning something

Aquaria laughed and picked a black outfit, since she wasn’t going to cheer a lot anyways.

 

\--

 

She ended up cheering a lot.

The atmosphere was contagious and all of the girls screamed and complained at every goal. Asia and Vixen’s family was so cheerful and proud of Chris (a skinny striker on his sophomore year), Aquaria ended up screaming and biting her nails along with the boys’ parents and her friends. Brianna told her how she knew the boy since he was little and he always played really well. She also wore the school colors, but she had more white than black on. They complemented each other well, Aquaria thought.

The first half of the match passed in the blink of an eye and Aquaria’s heartbeat was fast as the referee ended it. Chris’ team was scoring 1-3 goals and everybody was tense.

“Wanna make a bet?” Vixen asked Aquaria. They were sitting far from each other, but Monét and Brianna went to the restroom and there were a few empty spaces.

“What kind of bet?” Aquaria questioned.

“Chris is gonna make the goal that turns the tables around.” 

“Okay. What do you wanna bet?” 

“You’ll pay dinner next time we hang out.” 

It sounded legit. Aquaria didn’t know why Brianna told her she had to be careful with Vixen.

“Alright.”

The match started again soon. Chris’ team was a lot more energetic and had fury in their eyes. They scored two goals in ten minutes and Chris scored their fourth goal in the last five minutes of the game. The final score was 4-3 and Chris’ team won the championship. 

Everybody was bubbling with happiness and Aquaria’s face was hot from the adrenaline. Brianna had the same blush she had when Aquaria saw her playing with snow last year, and Aquaria blushed more when she remembered that day. Brianna looked as happy and innocent as she did now, wearing a light colored outfit and laughing.

Aquaria only remembered of the bet she made when they were walking to the bus stop and Vixen hugged her shoulder with an arm as they walked. They were going to meet Vixen and Asia’s relatives at their house for a barbecue to celebrate it.

“Guess who won two times!” She sing sang.

“What happened?” Monét asked.

“Me and Aqua here made a bet and I won!” 

“Oh, shit. What did you bet?” Monét asked. Brianna slapped her own forehead “I told you not to trust her!”

“Excuse me? Why shouldn’t she trust me?” Vixen questioned, faking that she was offended.

“Because you’re a manipulative bitch who makes people do whatever you want!” Monét stated.

“Just because I made you do my homework that time? We didn’t even establish what you should pay if I won!” 

“It was a five page long essay about some stupid war! And I hate History!” 

“Well, I hate it too!” 

“Girls, girls! Relax! I’m just gonna pay her dinner! It’s not the end of the world!”

“She’s gonna pick the most expensive restaurant in town, you’ll see.” Brianna said.

“I won’t. I have other plans.” Vixen concluded. She had a malicious smile on, but Aquaria wasn’t worried. Especially after Vixen said she wouldn’t make her pay for a pricey meal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since my first craquaria fic I pictured Monét as a nurse. She's so kind and cheery I imagine her making all of the children happy when she gives them medicines and shots. ( I just wanted to share this, thanks)
> 
> Can you spot that I love family events? 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

It was a hot afternoon. Spring came so much earlier that year and there wasn’t a single soul who could stand being indoors. At least not in their incredibly hot building, with the apartments receiving sunlight and heat all day long.

“We’re finally outside!” Monét shouted as she ran to the plaza right down the street. She had a tote bag on her shoulder and wore a sundress, much like the other girls. The rest of the group was right behind her, walking at a normal pace, while she chose the last spot available under a tree to have their picnic. She sat on a bench, opened her bag, took a giant fan and used it to cool herself down.

“What’s the use of coming outside if you’re gonna run around and sweat anyway?” Asia asked her.

“It’s fresh air, Asia darling! Birds chirping! A bright sun! Hopefully a summer storm by the end of the day!” She exclaimed in pure joy. She was starting to envy the kids on the swings, actually. She couldn’t wait for the plaza to be empty, so she could play on them too. No warnings from Asia would stop her from swinging a bit.

“A summer storm? It’s not even summer yet.” Aquaria commented as she helped Vixen open the towel over the grass.

“And I just washed my hair, so don’t want any storms, thank you very much!” Brianna complained while she took off her shoes and sat on the towel, opening the bags and spreading the ridiculous amount of food they brought over it.

“Oh, come on! Miss Asia was complaining she’s too old a few weeks ago…” 

“I didn’t say I’m old!” Asia remarked.

“… and when we finally have an opportunity to be the young beautiful ladies full of life and joy we are, you start bitching about your hair?”

“I’m not bitching about my hair! I just don’t want it to smell like a wet dog tomorrow. I can perfectly be a young lady or whatever under my umbrella, which I brought, just so you know. And you won’t come an inch near it if it starts raining, miss-in-the-prime-of-life” Brianna stated, maybe too stressed for her own liking.

“Just relax and have some cake, Cracker.” Vixen said offering her a plastic container with chocolate cake. She took one and passed it to Aquaria, who was by her side.  
The other girls changed the subject, but Brianna still had a frown and didn't speak much. Aquaria approached her and asked quietly, “Are you okay, Bri?”

“Not really” she sighed and looked at her. She was always a bit tense when she looked into Aquaria’s eyes. She was afraid to lose her trail of thought while she stared dumbly at the girl’s eyes. “We have a million things going on at work, and these new projects the managers come up with, they’ve been killing my mood lately. I’m sorry.” She lamented.

“It’s fine; everybody knows how much you value your work. We just want you to relax, you know? This weather’s making all of us a little stressed.” Aquaria comforted her, caressing her hand lightly. She had a kind smile on her glossed lips.

“Thanks, Aqua.” Brianna relaxed instantly. She smiled to Aquaria and the girl offered her a bit of her own juice to calm her down. Aquaria spent the whole afternoon sitting by her side and sometimes caressing her hand or arm.

When the food was over and Monét was snoring lightly on Vixen’s lap, a drizzle started. They managed to wake Monét up and shove the empty containers in their bags, but the rain was already pouring mercilessly over them when they left the plaza and they still had a few meters to walk. Brianna opened her umbrella and all of the girls left their bags with her and Aquaria, so they could run to the building more freely.

The two girls arrived at the building’s entrance completely soaked from the waist down, arm-in-arm and surrounded by tote bags, laughing at the stupid scene of the girls running from the rain and themselves trying to fit two people and a bunch of bags under a small umbrella. Brianna’s hair got a bit wet on the strands that weren’t under the umbrella all the time.

“See! You’re wet anyways; you should’ve enjoyed the rain!” Monét argued.

“I didn’t have much fun”, Vixen remarked.

“Well, we did” Aquaria commented while she fixed her hair, which was also wet on the tips and frizzy. She smiled at Brianna and the other girl blushed slightly. 

The other girls were already walking up the stairs. “Get a room”, Vixen muttered, and Monét chuckled and murmured a “Shh!” 

The two girls didn’t notice anything.

 

\--

 

When Vixen knocked on her door that night, Aquaria was making the final changes on a work before sending it to her client. 

She had hung out with the girls many times: they had gone out on clubs, watched movies together and shared many meals. Aquaria considered all of them her dear friends and she had a deeper relationship with these girls than she had with all of her old friends. She had her time to develop her social skills and become comfortable with them; and although she was still an awkward, antisocial kid who avoided everyone, she found a group of people where she was comfortable to be herself.

Vixen didn’t mention the bet a single time since then. Aquaria had asked her if she wanted to have her bet paid on the first times they hung out after the game, but Vixen denied and Aquaria eventually forgot about it.

Vixen made her remember it on that night.

“That bet? I thought you'd forgotten about it. You never want me to pay anything for you.” 

“Well, I just found a way you can pay for me. There’s this new Arab restaurant around Cracker’s work and she always talks about it…”

“Yeah, she told me about it too. She says it looks fancy and she always sees couples entering there.” Aquaria interrupted Vixen for a bit, remembering how Brianna described it. It sounded romantic and she imagined the two of them going for a date there many times, although she never had the courage to suggest it.

“Yeah, that one. Remember that meal you said you’re gonna pay for me? You can pay it for her. Take her there.” Vixen stated.

“What?” The taller girl exclaimed in shock. She started blushing in the blink of an eye.

“Yeah, exactly. I’ll give my earn to have a free meal on your side to her. Take her there and make her happy.” She commanded as if it was a simple thing to do.

“But… why would you do it?”

“Because… Cracker wants to go there so badly, she gave you a thousand hints, and you didn’t catch it. So I’m making it clear. Go make the poor girl happy.”

“Are you suggesting that we have a date? That Brianna wants us to have a date?” She asked still in shock.

“What? Me? Of course I didn’t. Aren’t you best friends or whatever? I’m just telling you to hang out with her as you girls always do. You’re the one coming up with this date thing. I mean, I wouldn’t mind if you two started dating. If you wanna ask her out, go on. I’m totally supportive. And I bet all of the other girls are too.” She ended with a wink. When she noticed Aquaria was out of words, she stood up from the couch.

“I’ll leave you to your own thoughts. But I want my part of the bet to be paid. Don’t forget it, Aquafina.” 

She left, leaving Aquaria as a complete mess of a blushing face and thoughts running wild with speculations and creating the wildest scenes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A kind soul reminded me of this fic a few days ago, so I decided to finish posting it. Prepare for tons of chapters!


	9. Chapter 9

It was Monét’s birthday and she decided to throw a party at her boyfriend’s for a change. Brandon shared an apartment with his cousin and it had a public party and barbecue area in the ceiling, so she threw a barbecue and it would be packed with people. Monét was so charismatic and lovely she had a ton of friends everywhere and couldn’t stop herself from inviting all of them.

Brandon’s apartment had a bit of Monét’s touch everywhere. She was obsessed with cleaning (she worked in a hospital and knew the power of proper hygiene), so he made it pristine clean. However, it was also a bit of a mess, organization wise. The girls came earlier to help Monét prepare the party: Aquaria had a list she found on Pinterest of things people used to have on barbecues and she read it to Monét while she opened the cupboards and the fridge and looked for them. Asia knew Monét could forget a lot more basic things for a party to function; so she helped the girls review the checklist.

“Chairs for everybody?” read Aquaria.

“Brandon’s upstairs taking care of it”.

“The birthday cake?” Asia questioned.

“Right here” Monét opened the fridge door and pointed to a paper box.

“Plastic cups, plates, forks, that stuff?”

“I have some here from past parties” She opened a cupboard which was a mess, but they could see a few plastic cups in the middle of a few plastic containers and food.

“Is it enough?” Aquaria asked.

“Don’t worry, there’s more.” She said kneeling on the floor and taking bags from the depths of the cupboard. There were lots of different colored plastic supplies, but they were enough.

“Did you buy the drinks?” Asia questioned.

Monét was silent for a few seconds. “No.”

“I knew it! You were too organized to be true.” Asia cheered as if she had won a bet.

“There’s a supermarket down the street where we can get them. Can anybody go? I need to stay and organize things.” Monét asked.

“I guess I could go” Aquaria volunteered. “I have a list here of beverages, see if it’s okay” she showed a smaller list at the bottom of her paper to Monét. 

“Looks good enough.” 

Asia agreed, peering over their shoulders.

“Okay.” Aquaria looked around to see who could go with her. Asia seemed as crucial to the organization as Monét, so she couldn’t ask her. 

Brianna was looking through the window in the living room, lost in thoughts. Aquaria thought about asking her to come along, but she suddenly remembered Vixen’s request and didn’t feel ready to talk privately to Brianna yet. She had been feeling uneasy around Brianna for a few weeks now, because of that damn bet. She wanted to see if Vixen could change it to something easier, so she asked her to come along. 

Of course, everybody noticed that Aquaria’s first option wasn’t Brianna, but they didn’t say anything. When the girls left, Brianna came to talk to Monét and Asia. Apparently, she was listening to everything.

“Uhm… do you think Aquaria’s mad at me?” she asked them hesitatingly. Maybe she was seeing things, right?

“I don’t think so, honey, but I have no idea why you girls have been apart lately,” Monét answered. She noticed Brianna didn’t seem happy with her answer, so she hugged her friend’s shoulders. Brianna was leaning on the kitchen counter, her arms crossed and her posture was tense.

“Maybe she’s trying to get closer to all of us?” Asia commented nervously. She noticed it had something to do with Vixen, because Aquaria looked nervously at her sister frequently, but Vixen said she had nothing to do with it. 

“But we’re all closer to her now. She mimicked a chicken at Dusty’s birthday and she was fine with it!” Monét argued.

“Well, she didn’t really feel like playing mimics the first time she met everybody. Maybe she forced herself to be fine with it.” Brianna commented.

“But what does growing apart from you has to do with it?” Monét inquired.

Brianna shrugged and they were silent for a few seconds. Asia was struggling with her observations, but Monét and Cracker were really thinking about the matter.

“Maybe she’s got a thing for Vixen?” Brianna tried hesitatingly. She had been thinking about it for a while, but she didn’t have the courage to say it out loud until then.

“Pssh, no way. Absolutely impossible.” Monét denied it, shaking her hands as if she was shooing it away. She almost chuckled at the impossibility of it. It was clear for everybody but Brianna that Aquaria had a crush on her.

“We could try to ask Vixen if she knows what’s going on.” Asia suggested, looking as clueless as she could. She knew, somehow, that the problem was Vixen.

“Yeah, we can talk to her later, when the party begins. Now, I want you to forget everything about it and help me make sure I have everything at hands to make a decent barbecue!” Monét cheered Brianna, lightening the mood. 

Her small friend (who had recently been able to wear her ridiculously tall heels again for a whole night, for that matter) smiled lightly and tried to focus on the task. They soon discovered that Monét had the ingredients to make something that would look a lot like a Guacamole, so Brianna focused on chopping vegetables instead.

 

\--

 

Aquaria was drunk. It had been a few years since the last time she got this drunk, and she didn’t know exactly how to react. Her inner self was screaming for her to dance crazily by herself at the middle of the party, but she was sober enough not to do that. She leaned on a wall and tried to focus on the conversations people were having instead.

It had all been Vixen’s fault, honestly. They bought the beers and soda Monét asked for the party, but Vixen wanted to bring a bottle of white wine too. She was sure everybody liked it, but no one was in the mood for wine that day. They were in the mood for cheap beer and loads of meat. So Aquaria and Vixen drank it all, and Aquaria certainly wasn’t used to drinking that much. She was feeling fine, but she knew she wasn’t being the slightly drunk version of herself she liked to be at social situations. She turned to the only person she trusted enough to help her: Brianna. The girl was getting some food at the table and Aquaria walked as normally as possible up to her and touched her shoulder.

“Hey, girl! What’s up?” she asked overexcitedly.

“Uhm… nothing, I guess.” It was the first time that night Aquaria started a conversation with her, so Brianna knew something was odd. She also noticed Aquaria was deliberately leaning on herself to get support, so she sat the girl on the nearest chair and gave her a sip of her coke. She was in such a bad mood; she decided not to drink that night.

“Why are you so drunk?” Brianna asked her.

“It was that damn wine! I drank it too fast.” She sipped on Brianna’s cup. “Why are you drinking coke?”

“Didn’t feel like drinking tonight.”

“You could’ve drunk the wine. Vixen said you liked it. I'd seen you drinking it a few times, too.” She remembered.

“Yeah, I’m not really in the mood for wine.” She explained.

“Oh. Why do you look so sad?” Aquaria questioned, holding her hand. She may be drunk and not be able to form decent phrases, but she knew something was odd with Brianna. 

“Ah, it’s nothing, really. I’m fine.” She knew she was a terrible liar, but she hoped she could get away with it this time.

“You’re a terrible liar.” Aquaria stated.

Brianna sighed.

“I don’t really feel like talking about it right now, you know? I don’t feel like it’s the right place.” She tried to justify herself.

“Oh. Do you wanna talk somewhere more private?” Aquaria asked with a blush. Her mind ran with thoughts about private places in an instant.

“I actually don’t feel like talking about it at all.” Brianna stated. Aquaria took a while to think about what to do next.

“Alright. Whenever you feel like talking about it, I’m all ears.” She affirmed with a bright smile. “Now, let’s do something to cheer you up! Let’s see if Monique’s story is as ridiculous as usual.” She stood up and held Brianna’s hand, pulling it. The shorter girl stood up, but she had to hold Aquaria too, so she wouldn’t lose her balance. It was a hard task, actually, because Aquaria was also wearing heels and she was taller than her. She was a bit clumsy too, even when she wasn’t drunk. Aquaria hugged her to keep her balance and laughed, making Brianna blush. 

They walked to their group of friends, Aquaria hugging Brianna affectionately, but also in order to keep her own balance. Brianna smiled at that and turned her attention to Monique, who was intercalating her story with her usual catchphrases and big gestures. Aquaria didn’t leave her side for the rest of the party. 

After everybody left the girls stayed to help Monét clean and because Brianna would drive them all home. They were at the sink, Brianna washing and Aquaria drying the dishes while everybody was piling chairs and taking the remaining food and drinks to Brandon’s apartment. 

“Bri, what’s the name of that restaurant you talk about, next to your work? The fancy one with the… indian food, I think.” Aquaria asked nervously. She was occupied with something, turning her back to Brianna so she wouldn’t see her blush.

“There’s an arab fancy one, actually.” Brianna commented. “It’s called Zaroob or something like that. People say it’s really good.” 

“Ah, o-okay. Thanks.” She stuttered.

“Why do you ask?” Brianna couldn’t help inquiring her. She tried to keep a light tone though, so she wouldn’t sound too curious.

Well, that was the time, right? The heavens sent that moment, when they were all alone, for Aquaria to ask Brianna to go with her to that damn restaurant. She just had to gather some courage and ask. 

“It’s n-nothing, really. I was wondering if they have delivery.” Aquaria made it up quickly, sweating out of nervousness and slapping herself mentally for being that much of a coward.

“Oh, I don’t think so. I've never seen in them in the food delivery app.” Brianna sounded disappointed. Maybe she really wants to go there with me, Aquaria thought. She still couldn’t bring herself to ask her.

“Mm-hmm” Aquaria mumbled and they fell into silence for a while before she could find a lighter subject.

‘I’ll research about the place and plan it properly’, Aquaria thought. ‘I’ll ask her once everything is prepared’. 

Vixen didn’t want to change her task and she was growing impatient. She threatened Aquaria with introducing Brianna to a new friend she made at college and showed pictures of the girl to her. “She’s Brianna’s type, I’m telling you” Vixen sing-sang. Aquaria was terrified of that, but she would never admit it to Vixen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually researched and there's an arab restaurant called Zaroob, but it's around the west coast, as long as I remember. Asian restaurants are so romantic, in my opinion.


	10. Chapter 10

When the girls decided to rent a house to spend the next bank holiday at the beach, Aquaria had no idea where she was getting herself into. They spent two more hours at the trip than the time their GPS had informed them, due to terrible traffic. Luckily, the weather at the road wasn’t as hot as at the beach and Aqua had managed to take a nap during most of the trip. She slept on Brianna’s shoulder and Vixen was sitting right next to them, so she knew she would be teased about it later. 

Vixen didn’t tease her, though. She just smiled at Brianna smugly and didn’t say anything about it. Asia had told her off after Monét’s birthday. 

“You have no right to interfere in their relationship. If they wanna be together, they’ll sort things out all by themselves and then they’ll let us know about it.” Asia lectured her. 

Vixen decided not to speak about it anymore, although she could hardly keep her expressions from saying what she wanted to. She also decided not to bring the bet up with Aquaria again for a while. 

The house wasn’t that big. There should be people sleeping everywhere except in the kitchen and bathrooms. The girls had woken up early to hit the road and arrived before noon, so they decided to spend the whole day at the beach while their friends came in equally loaded cars. The sun was bright and the weather was terribly hot and humid, the seawater was cold and troubled. 

Aquaria spent the day at the sea, most of the time all by herself. The girls had played volleyball and laid on the sand, but she didn’t really like getting tanned and her skin was too fair, so she only came to the sand to reapply her sunblock and wait for it to start working, sitting under the parasol all of the time. Her skin was only a bit red at the end of the day and she didn’t feel it burn.

When they decided to go to the house and make something to eat, Aquaria realized how crowded the house was. There were luggage everywhere but, most importantly, there were people everywhere. She washed the dishes after they ate and realized there wasn’t a single empty room available. She started feeling a bit anxious. She liked having some alone time and she liked to organize things her own way, but the girls obviously had their own view of how the house should work and they were obviously more used to living with other people than she was. Aquaria mumbled to Blair, who was sitting on the couch checking her phone, that she was leaving for a walk and left.

The house was a 15-minute walk away from the beach and the sun was setting when Aquaria decided to sit on a small brick wall that separated the sand from the sidewalk.

 

\--

 

Brianna was taking a nap after she ate, but a few girls woke her up when they decided to chat in the same bedroom she was sleeping. She woke up in a bad mood, obviously. She was listening to the girls’ chat absentmindedly when she realized Aquaria wasn’t around.

“She said she was going for a walk,” Blair clarified.

“Oh. Okay.” She answered and turned to her own thoughts. Monét, who was at the backyard with Brandon and Asia, listened to everything and whispered a few things with Asia before coming inside and talking to Brianna.

“We’ll need to buy something to eat for breakfast tomorrow. Can you go to the market, Cracker?” she asked.

Of course Brianna agreed. She was the one taking care of the money they would spend, so it made sense for her to go. They agreed on what she would buy and she left.

The market was in the middle of the way to the beach and Brianna decided to walk the rest of it after she bought everything. She wasn’t that surprised when she spotted Aquaria watching the sunset. It was almost over though, the street lamps were switched on.

“Mind if I sit here?” she asked calling Aquaria’s attention. The girl was so immersed in her own thoughts she was a bit surprised to see Brianna.

“Of course not” she mumbled, but her body language became tense. Aquaria had been thinking about Brianna, actually.

“You ok?” the smaller girl asked.

“Sure.” She was okay now, after she had a few minutes to herself. “I was just watching the sunset and the clouds.”

“Yeah, we don’t have this view back at home” Brianna agreed with a smile. The sky was orange, pink and dark and there were a lot more clouds than earlier, all of them reflecting the sun’s colors. On the other side of the sky, they could see the moon rising. It had a perfect C shape. “We should enjoy this silence; I bet things won’t be as peaceful once everybody starts looking for somewhere to sleep.” She commented, trying to find a subject for them to talk.

“Shit, I forgot about this. If someone starts snoring, I won’t sleep for a single minute.”

“You don’t like noises when you sleep?”

“Nor noises nor lights. Hopefully I won’t sleep in the living room too.”

“Yeah, I think no one wants that either.”

They were quiet for a while before Aquaria gathered the courage to say what she wanted to.

“I’m really enjoying this, you know? I'd never traveled with friends before. But I have some things I like to have at home that’s kind of impossible to have here.”

“I think that’s a common feeling for everybody. What do you miss the most from home?”

“The silence. My organization. Being able to be by myself.” She finally confessed.

“Is that why you came here? I’ll leave if you want to.” Brianna asked embarrassed. She didn’t realize she was interrupting.

“No, it’s okay. I mean, you’re okay. I’m used to you, you-you make me feel comfortable.” She stuttered nervously. “I’d be a lot more uncomfortable if you weren’t around.” She admitted.

“Oh. Okay.” Brianna answered surprised.

“I’m sorry if it sounds awkward.” Aquaria apologized, blushing slightly.

“No, it’s fine. I mean, it’s not awkward. I’m just glad you feel good around me. I was worried you wouldn’t wanna come with us. I know we hang out all of the time, but I know you   
have your habits and stuff.”

“Actually I didn’t think about these things when you girls invited me, I was so excited. I’m glad to be here, seriously. You’re one of the kindest people I’ve ever met…” she commented. She didn’t really know how to finish her sentence and kept herself quiet. “and I really like you” was one of the alternatives, but Aquaria didn’t have the courage to say it out loud.

“Well, thanks. I-I really like you, too. You’re one of my best friends.” Brianna answered looking away from her. She was blushing hard, and Aquaria realized her face was warmer too. They smiled shyly at each other and Brianna sat closer to her, placing the plastic bags on the sidewalk behind her and taking Aquaria’s hand. She traced the girl’s hand and interlaced their fingers.

Aquaria was trembling a bit, felling Brianna’s heat and the faint smell of her coconut scented hair products. She was sweating even with the sea breeze. She looked at the smaller girl’s eyes hesitantly. Then she took Brianna’s hand and kissed it lightly, slowly, reading the girl’s reactions. The blonde looked surprised, but she had a blush and Aquaria thought she liked it. Aquaria put their hands on her own lap again and approached Brianna slowly, taking every bit of her confidence doing that. Now, while she looked at Brianna’s surprised and beautiful eyes and felt tempted by her half-opened lips, she could hardly listen to the voice in the back of her head that said she was making a terrible mistake and losing a friend again.

She kissed her. She took so much time she was sure Brianna could’ve done something if she didn’t want this, so Aquaria just went forward until their lips met and closed her eyes. 

She brushed them lightly, holding the blonde girl’s hand tighter without noticing. She was blushing hard, but she wanted to do it for so long, she couldn’t bother how embarrassed she looked. When she broke the kiss, she felt Brianna moving towards her and stopped, making their lips crush again. It felt awkward, but it also felt good. Especially after Brianna let go of her hand to touch Aquaria’s chin lightly with both hands.

The smell of coconut mixed with the salty taste of Brianna’s lips put Aquaria in a daze. She didn’t realize she had opened her lips until Brianna’s tongue met hers and the taller girl felt an urge to hold the other one tighter, which she did, holding her waist and moving her body towards Brianna.

They kissed for a while, oblivious to time and space, until Aquaria’s phone buzzed in her pocket and they parted suddenly.

“H-hello? Hi, mom. N-no, it’s great actually. I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you. Listen, I’m not at the house right now, can I call you in a few minutes? Alright. Love you too. Bye.”

Aquaria looked at her phone screen for a few seconds before looking up to Brianna again.

“Sorry, my mom’s a little overprotective” she apologized.

“I guess all of them are” Brianna smiled and Aquaria smiled along with her. “I think we should come back, otherwise we’ll sleep with Vanessa at the living room.” She commented and turned towards the sidewalk, standing up.

“Does she like sleeping there?” Aquaria asked also standing and doing her best to act normally. Brianna seemed nervous too, but she always handled nervousness better than the taller girl.

“No, she snores, so no one but her girlfriend can put up with her.”

“Damn. Do you think the bunk beds will still be available?”

“At least the top ones, I think so.”

“I can manage sleeping on them.”

Brianna held all of the bags in one hand and Aquaria offered to hold half of them. She accepted and held Aquaria's other hand while they walked. That made Aquaria feel much more comfortable and she relaxed. They talked about who could sleep where and when they were approaching the house, Brianna changed subjects.

“So, um… do you wanna make this public already?” She asked looking at their joined hands.

“I-If you wanna keep it a secret, I don't mind” Aquaria answered trying to seem calm. It was still all very weird for her.

“At least until we, I don't know, talk about it or something. You know the girls won't leave us alone when they find out. If you wanna tell them someday, of course.” She added the last sentence quickly.

“I think we can sort things out between ourselves before making it public.” Aquaria agreed. Everything was new to her and she didn't have the chance yet to think about what she felt while kissing Brianna. It was amazing, of course, but she needed to replay it in her mind. And she hoped to repeat it as soon as possible, of course.

They walked into the house with matching blushes and acted as normal as possible, except they didn't touch each other. Asia, who was taking care of the food and meals, realized something was different, of course. But she decided to keep it to herself and Aquaria went to sleep very early. Some of the girls were super tired and were already sleeping, and she was tired from swimming all day. She thought about their kiss before falling asleep and she could still feel the ghost of Brianna's lips on hers. Her kiss was as kind and lovely as her, and Aquaria was falling harder for the girl, if that was even possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fluff of it all!
> 
> I love fluff. I'm not ashamed of it. How cliché and cute is it to kiss watching the sunset?


	11. Epilogue

Everybody woke up early on the next day. Monét had light sleep and woke up early, so no one could sleep while she was awake. Her voice was loud and, as soon as she and Asia decided to visit a beach far from their house and arranged the food and drinks they’d take, she opened the windows and doors of the bedrooms a bit so the noise of the TV and the light could enter the rooms. Of course not everybody took Monét’s method of waking them up lightly, but everybody agreed they should use as much of the daylight as possible.

Aquaria laid in bed for a while and waited for the other girls to use the bathroom. Brianna was sleeping on the bottom bed of the bunker right next to her while she slept on the top one and they smiled lazily at each other when they acknowledged the other one was awake. They wanted to chat, but they were afraid to let their feelings show. More than they were already showing through their matching blushes and long, awkward looks at each other, that is. Mayhem, who slept on the floor between the bunks, tried not to stare too much at them, but everybody had an idea about Aquaria and Brianna's feelings for each other, so she didn't really pay attention to it.

 

\--

 

The beach was absolutely beautiful. It was so far from the city they could ride the car into the sand and stop where they wanted to stay instead of using a parking lot. It had lots of trees and a river that ran into the sea.

Aquaria helped the girls set the things, but there wasn't much to do. They left their clothes at the cars and everything was easy to reach. She sat on the yokes spread on the sand while she waited for her sunblock to start working, but soon Brianna invited her for a walk.

They walked for a while talking and splashing the cold salty water on each other with their feet until their cars were a small dot on the other side of the shore. Then, Brianna hugged the taller girl by the waist and Aquaria held her shoulders and kissed her gently. The sun was bright and they were wet from the sea water, their light clothes letting their bodies touch each other more. Aquaria kissing the blonde's neck gave Brianna chills that spread all over her body and she held Aquaria's hip with a bit of strength, wanting to grab her butt instead. The beach was emptier than the one they went on the previous day, but there were cars here and there and a few open kiosks.

Aquaria felt Brianna's skin texture as she chilled and smiled. It was so soft and she was sure the blonde was wearing a bit of perfume. She was a bit embarrassed of kissing in such a visible place, so she freed herself from Brianna's embrace and held her hand while they walked to a nearby tree, pushing the smaller girl until her back was against the trunk, kissing her again, a bit more intense this time. Brianna moaned softly when she nibbled her earlobe and Aquaria knew she was doing something right. They kissed for a while, wishing they were somewhere more private (especially Aquaria), and sat on the sand holding each other's hand and chatting between small pecks and contained kisses.

“I had no idea you felt the same way I do” Brianna confessed.

“Are you kidding? I could barely be mad at you when you broke your feet because you were so beautiful.” 

That made Brianna blush.

“I always thought you were beautiful too. Like, those girls so gorgeous you're afraid to talk to them? I mean, I tried to talk to you, but still. I never thought you'd be so considerate of me when it all happened. You looked stuck up.”

“Really? I always think of myself as awkward.”

“You’re really shy when you start talking to people so that feeling went away quickly. But I still think you're gorgeous.” 

Aquaria blushed and Brianna giggled, kissing her again. 

“Do we really have to go back?” Aquaria asked while Brianna played with their hands, comparing sizes and noticing the short, slightly gnawed nails.

“Unfortunately, yes. I could go to the sea with you later though. You're gonna spend the whole day there, right?”

“Maybe not the whole day since now we have the tree shades on the yokes, but most of it for sure.”

“I had no idea you liked the sea. You always looked like those girls who spend the whole day at the sand.”

'I love the sea. It calms me. It feels like home, you know?”

Brianna nodded and kissed Aquaria's hand gently.

 

\--

 

Aquaria was at the water when they were alone again. She was between that part where the waves crash and when they're too small to form, making the sea a calm lake for a few seconds. Brianna swimmed towards her and a huge wave crashed right in front of them at the same time, so Aquaria swam right under it while Brianna turned her back towards the wave and the water slapped her hard.

“Be careful, they're strong today. Are you okay?”

“I'm fine” the blonde answered grinning. When the water was calm again, she hugged Aquaria under the water complaining she was cold. They felt a whole new feeling, shivering under such an intimate contact and kissing quickly, afraid that new waves would crash right over them.

“Hm… can I ask you a question?” Aquaria said after a while

“Sure.”

“You know that Arab restaurant you always talk about?”

“I didn't know I always talked about it, but yes.”

“Do you wanna go there with me someday, when we come back home?” She asked blushing, trying not to look at Brianna's cleavage.

“As a date?” She asked surprised.

“Yeah… if you want it to be one.” Aquaria answered embarrassedly.

“Of course I wanna go on a date with you.” She answered grinning and kissing Aquaria's neck excitedly.

Meanwhile, at the sand, Asia looked at the sea and smirked.

“Well, I think you owe me 20 bucks, Monét.”

“Why?” The younger girl asked. They were sitting on the yoke and Dusty was playing random notes on a guitar next to them.

“I guess Cracker and Aquaria are finally together.”

“You're kidding!?” Monét asked while she lifted her head from Brandon's lap and looked at the sea. The girls weren’t near enough for them to see what they were doing, but they were obviously too close. 

“Yeah, they're having something. Damnit! I thought they were going to be too afraid of us seeing it to try something.” 

“I mean, they spent hours 'walking’. It was kinda obvious already.” Vixen's commented while she played volleyball with Monique and did quotation marks with her fingers.

“With those two you could never know. When do you think they’re gonna tell us?” Asia asked.

“They'll probably let it slip when we go out tonight and they drink. Do you think they can share a bed now so me and Brandon will be able to sleep in the bigger bedroom?” 

“Girl, they didn't even tell us yet and you wanna marry them! Calm down!” Monique said cackling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went to a beach where you can drive on the sand a few months ago and I was so amazed by it that I wanted to put it here. How could I live until today carrying chairs and parasols around like a neanderthal? lol
> 
> Btw, I'm not sure if I used proper vocabulary on the beach things and I don't know north american beach habits, so if anything sounds strange, please tell me.
> 
>  
> 
> And this is the end! I thought about making it longer, maybe postpone their first kiss to the date, but inspiration left me at that point and I just wanted to finish this. It's not my favorite chapter nor my favorite end, but it'll do. If I push myself into making the perfect story, I'll take a lot more time than I already took in this one. Practice is better than nothing, you know? Plus I myself don't read incomplete fics so it didn't make sense for me to leave it unfinished just because I didn't love what I did.
> 
> Self critics aside, what do you think? Overall I'm happy with this story, but it sure took a lot more time and became a lot longer than I first imagined. I guess I have a thing for slow build.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!!!!  
> I'm really thankful for everyone that commented and left kudos. If you're a silent reader, the time to say your opinion is now! Any small comment will make my heart warmer, I swear. Everytime I got an email from ao3 saying I had a new comment my day became instantly better.
> 
> <3


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